Sofia: First game Topalov-Kamsky drawn

2/17/2009 – In the first game of the special FIDE Candidates Qualifier for the World Championship Veselin Topalov uncorked a novelty on move 17, and launched a sharp attack against Kamsky's king. However the Brooklyn Boy remained unperturbed, defended well and in fact gained a slight advantage. We bring you a full report with annotations of game one by GM Mihail Marin.

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The Kamsky-Topalov FIDE World Championship Qualifier is taking place from February
16th to 28th in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria. The Match
consists of eight games and if necessary tie-breaks. It has a prize find of
US $250,000 which will be shared equally by the players. The winner qualifies
for a World Championship Match against Viswanathan Anand, scheduled for later
this year.

Round one report

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5. Kamsky's love story with the Gruenfeld Defence
dates a long time back. Among his scalp collection in this opening, we can find
the name of the 12th World Champion, Anatoly Karpov. If we add the fact that
one of Kamsky's seconds, Emil Sutovsky, is an outstanding specialist of the
Gruenfeld, the opening choice hardly was a surprize for Topalov. 4.cxd5 Nxd5
5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bc4 c5 8.Ne2 Nc6 9.Be3 0-0 10.0-0

The classical line is Topalov's invariable choice against the Gruenfeld. In
the past, this variation has been seen with the occasion of historical matches
between Botvinnik and Smyslov or between Kasparov and Karpov. Also, it twice
led the legendary Fischer to defeat against Spassky, but that was before their
"/portals/all/_for_legal_reasons.jpg". The main idea of this system is to build up
a strong centre, which cannot be destroyed easily, but the course of this game
will be rather non-typical for this traditional perception. 10...Na5 11.Bd3
b6 12.Qd2 e5. This line has become fashionable lately. Kamsky had tried
it last year against Topalov's second, Cheparinov, which makes the game very
intriguing from psychological point of view. 13.Bh6 cxd4 14.Bxg7 Kxg7 15.cxd4
exd4 16.f4 f6

The situation has changed dramatically over the past few moves. There is almost
nothing left from White's centre, but Black is slightly underdeveloped and his
king is vulnerable. 17.e5. This is a novelty over the aforementioned
game, where 17.Rac1 was played. Until this moment, Topalov had spend only three
minutes. As a reaction to the novelty, Kamsky sank into prolongued thinking,
and played his move when he had only 50 minutes left on the clock. 17...Bd7!?
What makes the Gruenfeld so easy and difficult at the same time is the
practically unlimited choice on virtually each move. It is clear that Black
has to catch up in development and avoid the excessive weakening of his king's
position at the same time. 17...Bb7 looks quite natural, but then 18.exf6+ followed
by f4-f5 is annoying. 17...f5 is another possibility, but Kamsky may have feared
that any ending may be dangerous for him because of the white passed pawn. The
idea of the text move is to keep the e6- and f5-squares well defended, while
preparing the connection of rooks. Its only obvious drawback is that it leaves
the extra-pawn undefended. 18.exf6+. It was Topalov's turn to think
for a long time. He decided to put his bid on the attack, probably fearing that
18.Nxd4 Nc6 would lead to early simplifications and a draw. Topalov's move will
eventually lead to the same result, but, to the public's delight, after a very
interesting fight. We can also infer that Kamsky reacted quite well to the opening
surprize. 18...Qxf6 19.Ng3 Kh8 20.f5 gxf5 21.Bxf5 Bxf5 22.Rxf5 Qd6 23.Raf1
Nc6

28.Rh5. The apparently dangerous 28.Ng5? can be met by 28...Rc8! when
continuing with the attacking operations with 29.Rf7? would lead to disaster
after 29...Rc1+ 30.Kh2 Qe5+ . Topalov's move has the advantage that it keeps
the e5-square under control, restricting Black's counter-attacking chances.
Oh, and it creates the annoying threats of Nf6 or Qxg6! 28...Rg8. After
this move, the game will enter the drawish zone more or less by force. The more
exotic try 28...Kg8!? would probably have led to the same result after 29.Nf6+
Qxf6 30.Qxh7+ Kf8 31.Rh6 Rc8 32.Rxg6 Rc1+ 33.Kh2 Qe5+ 34.Rg3 Rc3 35.Qg8+ Ke7
36.h4 Black's king is too exposed to entitle him aspire to an advantage. 29.Nf6
Rg7

Standings

Nat.

Rtng.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Tot.

Perf.

Kamsky, Gata

USA

2725

½

0.5

2796

Topalov, Veselin

BUL

2796

½

0.5

2725

Press conference with Kirsan Ilumzhinov

In the opening press conference before the starto of the Topalov-Kamsky match
the President of FIDE, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, announced that the next Grand Prix
will take place in April [he said March but it is April] in the Russian Republic
of Kabardino Balkaria. In a second remarkable statement the President said:
"There will be no changes in the current world championship cycle. At the
next Presidential board meeting in Istambul March 6-8 there will be details
to be refined, and also discussion, but I do not expect changes in the current
world championship cycle."

What does this mean? Well, most likely that Kirsan has recognised that the
somewhat haphazard
decision taken during the Dresden Olympiad to change the running cycle and
to in fact insert an extra tier is not tenable and needs to be corrected. Apparently
he expects the announced changes not to be ratified by the General Assembly,
which convenes in Turkey at the beginning of March.

See also

12/30/2017 – The "King Salman World Blitz & Rapid Championships 2017" in Riyadh from Decemer 26th to 30th. At the half way point of the Blitz Championship, the defending champ Sergey Karjakin leads with 9 / 11. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a half point back followed by Peter Svidler and a trio of Chinese: Wang, Ding and Yu on 8 / 11. In the Women's Pia Cramling has a full point lead with 9½ / 11. Watch live with Rounds 11 to 22 from 12:00 Noon CET (6:00 AM EST) on Saturday with commentary by E. Miroshnichenko & WGM K. Tsatsalashvili.

See also

12/6/2017 – Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convincingly! DeepMind, the company that recently created the strongest Go program in the world, turned its attention to chess, and came up with this spectacular result.

Video

The Exchange Variation (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3) is a simple and easy to learn answer to the Caro-Kann. By clarifying the central tension White gives himself a clear plan of attack using the half open e-file and the e5 square. This is far from easy for Black to meet as Bobby Fischer, Jan Timman, Walter Browne and other leading Grandmasters have demonstrated in their games. Black too has his resources but he needs to know what he's doing. On this DVD you will find a clear explanation of the strategy for both sides as well as answers to popular treatments such as 4...Nc6 5.c3 Qc7. Whilst the main focus is on the White side of this opening you will also find ways for Black to defend.